China Catch Up

I haven't posted to the blog in a few days, and there is so much to catch everyone up on... at least all the adults reading. If the kids are actually reading this, they aren't posting!

Environmental Issues
Mrs. Long asked me to check into the environmental issues of each of the areas. Well, now that I am out of China, I am a little more uninhibited about what I can say. I think Beijing would make a fascinating environmental study- the effect of the recent Olympics on the environment. I got the real impression that China didn't want to loose face during the 2008 Olympic Games. They underwent massive changes in their intrastructure. I believe that before the Olympics there were 2 highways that ran through Beijing. Now there are 8. (Don't quote my exact numbers, but you get the general idea). They converted all their buses from diesel to natural gas. They planted "green spaces" all over the city, and while we were there we witnessed them digging up those green spaces. (Such as in Tienemin Square).




If you look closely at this photo you will see that all the trees are in plastic buckets, like when you first buy them from the nursery. (If you don’t see what I am talking about, look closely behind the couple who are getting their picture taken under the huge portrait of Mao. Remember, if you click on the photo, you can enlarge it.) What I didn’t get to show you, but really wish I had, was a photo of the guards and the workers who were digging the trees up out of the ground and loading them onto a waiting flatbed truck. As they lifted the trees out of the ground, they still had the brown burlap wrapped around their root balls. It was obvious they never intended to keep the trees there. It was all show for the Olympics. During the Games, the farmers in the surrounding area went through an extreme drought because they were diverting all the water into Beijing. If there is one thing this country can’t afford to loose it's a crop of food.

Beijing has taken some other measures to become more eco-friendly. They instituted a traffic law that only allows you to drive 4 out of the 5 days of the working week. It’s all according to the last digit of your social security number. On your “off” driving day, you are encouraged to share a ride, use the subway, bus, bike, or walk. It’s not hard in this city, since you have all forms of public transportation available. Bikes share the road equally with cars. In some places they have their own full-sized (or over-sized, even) lanes. In other places bikes and cars and trucks coexist in the same lanes and intersections and traffic jams. So the problem isn’t that there aren’t ample and economical options available for transportation other than cars. The problem is the sheer number of people. I’ve seen hundreds, nay, thousands of bikes and scooters since I have been in China. They are everywhere, parked crammed into any and every available space. They litter the sidewalks. And, in all reality, they don’t use them to be green- like, say, the residents of Portland, Oregon or similar. No. They use them because that’s what they can afford.

I would take this opportunity to talk about the price of gas in China, but I haven’t seen a gas station with Western numbers on the sign, yet.

But since we are talking about pollution, the environment, and the Olympics, let me post an interesting photo. Witness the Bird’s Nest on a typical Beijing Friday:
---OK, so I wrote this and went back to insert the photos, and I realized I couldn’t get them off my camera. I have an 8-minute video of the Chattanooga teachers eating seahorses on a stick in the market and a 45-minute video of a lecture by a famous Beijing calligrapher (the same one who painted the Olympics characters). For whatever reason, my camera doesn’t want to let go of the videos and the pictures that came after them…--- I will upload my horrible photo of the Bird's Nest later. It's so hazy, you can barely see it in the distance.

I don’t want anyone to really get the impression that I am dogging China too much. The truth is, they are a wonderfully rich culture full of interesting (and very nice) people. But they certainly do have their problems. The environment (despite their efforts- or the appearance of) is one of them.

Speaking of rick and interesting culture, let me post a few nice photos before I go to bed. These came from a hudong- a traditional Chinese neighborhood.





Tomorrow we go to visit a Japanese middle school and a high school. When I get back to the room tomorrow, I will try to report back on man purses, fashion, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the temple of Heaven, the list goes on and on!

Good night for now!